Northern Stars
by CarsasaAllakay
Summary: He hurt her and everyone knows, for it was the day that ruined her graduation and his alike: a day nobody will ever forget. Now, 5 years later, single mother Hanna Marin signs up for under the duress of her three best friends, in a vain attempt to forget about Caleb Rivers. Then, she receives her first match. Is he the one, her 'something missing,' or is it always Caleb?
1. Chapter 1

**_Author's Note: Here it is! My Haleb story is here! Northern Stars is told in the alternate views of both Hanna and Caleb, with flashbacks integrated here and there that serve as explanations when needed. Anyway, please review your thoughts :) _**

* * *

_"Every long lost dream led me to where you are; others who broke my heart, they were like northern stars."_

_-Bless This Broken Road, Rascal Flats_

* * *

_**Hanna**_

Slivers of whitened gold - the brisk morning sunlight - peaked through the green folliage, and tentitively spread it apart; its motion much like the petite fingers of a frightened child whilst watching the trademark barbarity of a horror movie: slow and apprehensive.

The girl stood, cleats planted firmly on the scuffed grass, where patches of dirt had arose from under the green in multiple places. Her gaze was trained firmly on the net, or more specifically, the pudgy redhead with a mouthful of metal braces; and as she smiled menacingly at her opponent, they clashed with the emerging sunlight in a blinding flash of iridescence.

Hanna squinted, just like the girl was doing now, in concentration, into the camera lens, determined to get the perfect shot. She bit her bottom lip in anticipation, thumb pressing the button halfway. "Come on Tay," she whispered, knowing full well the child couldn't hear her.

The ambient, currently, at this very second, was tense; a ripple of anxiety coursing through those who stood with her on the sidelines and in the bleachers.

This was it.

She was the only team member on the field, and as she geared up to take the final shot, she began to chew on her mouth guard in a contemplative manner. Hanna resisted the urge to chastise her, having told her a handful of times already, not to do that as it ruined the material. She settled for remaining silent, watching with all the other respectable parents alike, as she reset the camera.

Finally, after what seemed like an hour, although it was really only a few seconds, the inside of her foot collided with the checkered ball, and as it soared through the air, Hanna held her breath: watching avidly, hoping and praying, that it would get past the goalie.

In the blink of an eye, the scenery changed, as did the energy. The goalie now lay flat on her back, with the ball directly behind her in the net, and both her teammates and spectators burst into a cacophony of applause.

There was a common theme amongst all of the commotion; a chorussed congratulations, sung with each persons' entirety, as the gaggle of girls surrounded their captain. "Tatum, you did it! We won!" Grace, a petite blonde with knobby knees, cried, enveloping her best friend in a hug.

Tatum was smiling, a Cheshire grin stretching from ear to ear, as she shook her head. "It was all of us, Gracie."

Tatum, with her thick brunette waves pulled into a sleek high ponytail, and her oceanic eyes glowing with pride, possessed a demure beauty, her tanned skin contrasting in the light of Grace's pale complexion as she embraced her.

As Tatum continued for the next few minutes to campaign her team's parity in sport of the win, Hanna watched proudly from afar as she prepared the snacks. "That's my girl," she murmured, smiling to herself while she took the twelve oranges along with an equal amount of juice boxes from the cooler.

"Snacks!" Hanna called, somewhat startled as they ran towards her - Tatum leading the pack - all at once. The girls each took an orange and juice, making sure to throw in a "thanks Ms. Marin," before parting to stand with their respective adults.

"Thanks mommy," Tatum gratified, grabbing the last lone orange from the pile and proceeding to peel it. "You're very welcome Tay, you played a great game today."

"Thank you," Tatum responded modestly as she bit into a section of orange, a crimson blush creeping up her cheeks.

"I got some great pictures," Hanna added, as her daughter shouldered her purple equipment bag. "Are we going to Auntie Aria's now?"

Hanna nodded, "I told them we'd meet after your game, so yeah, I guess we are."

"Yay!" Tatum squealed, jumping up and down. "I want to show Uncle Ezra my medal!" She pointed to the gold pendant that hung from her neck on a yellow ribbon, smiling hugely.

"I'm sure he'd love to see it Tay, I'm so proud of you."

Hanna reveled in her daughter's achievement, like any other supportive mother would, and took the keys from her purse. "Let's get going."

"Okay!" Tatum never acknowledged her mother's praises as she ran ahead, her ponytail swishing from side to side.

Hanna moved to catch up to her daughter, calling after her to stop and wait before crossing the street. Tatum obeyed, and in a few seconds Hanna reached where she was standing, and grabbed her hand.

"Now what do we do before crossing the street?"

"Look both ways," Tatum replied, while doing just that.

"And after?"

"If it's clear, we can go."

"And if not?"

"Then we can't and we have to wait."

"Is it clear?" Hanna asked, although already knowing the answer.

"Yes mommy, it's clear. We can go right?"

"Yes sweetheart, we can. Lead the way." Tatum nodded, pulling on her mother's hand as she stepped off the field and into the street across from the parking lot.

Hanna hovered close behind, her eyes peeled for any unexpected, speeding cars. Although she trusted her daughter, having taught her well, Hanna rationalized that you could never be too careful.

"We did it!" Tatum cheered, stepping onto the grassy portion just before the parking lot. "Good job honey, you were very safe." Tatum smiled with satisfaction, "Good."

This was a game they always played, with Hanna having taught her at a very early age, about street smarts. Every time the duo encountered a crosswalk there was the routine questioning - before crossing what do you do, is it safe - and if it was, Hanna had Tatum take the lead and cross with her behind instead of in front. Although, with that in mind, she was always careful to hold her daughter's hand and keep a fair distance all the while, in case of an instance out of their control.

When they got to their car, a blue minivan, Hanna assisted her daughter as she got settled, putting her bag in the trunk and clambering into her booster seat. Tatum got herself buckled, nicely refusing her mother's help, and took out her LeapPad from the backseat compartment.

"Ready?" Hanna asked from the driver's seat she had since gotten into, and started the car. She turned and looked at her daughter as she proceeded to shoulder check before backing out of the parking space. "Yep!" Tatum affirmed, momentarily looking up from her game and adding a thumbs up for emphasis.

Hanna chuckled as she faced forward again, turning onto the street a few blocks away from Aria's house, as the soccer field, now clad with another team beginning warm up drills, slowly disappeared from her rear view mirror.

There was an electronic ping, splintering the moment's silence, as Hanna veered onto a residential street. "Mommy, me think your phone is ringing," Tatum observed, her gaze never straying from the LeapPad's screen.

"Thanks Tay, I'll check it when we get to Auntie Aria's."

Hanna refrained from checking, what she now knew, as it never actually rang, to be a notification in practice of safe driving.

Tatum's Uncle Toby was a police officer, and for some reason unknown to Hanna, seemingly expressed such schadenfreude in recounting the many accident scenes he'd been to on the job - in a grotesque amount of detail. These stories scared Hanna into getting a hands free, and stopped her from listening to the radio when she drove.

A minute or so later, Hanna pulled into the Fitz's driveway, parking behind Aria's red Jetta.

* * *

A few hours had passed, and with Hanna talking and laughing, she'd completely forgotten about that notification she was going to check upon her arrival. That is, until the animated conversation subjected around Aria's kindergarten class was abruptly eclipsed with a heavy sigh and discursive lilt. "So... Han... have you checked your matches lately?"

Hanna glared at her friend, spying her daughter in her peripheral vision.

Currently, Tatum was engaged in a deep conversation with Spencer, her 'aunt' tiring quickly as she griped about her pregnancy to the five year old. "...it's hard Tay, the baby kicks nonstop throughout the night, and I can't get any sleep. Sometimes I think I prefer morning sickness."

Tatum was nodding, giving the impression that she actually understood the pain of morning sickness, and what it was that Spencer was going through. "Is she kicking now?" the little girl asked, pressing her tiny palm onto Spencer's obnoxiously burgeoning stomach.

"When are you due Spence?" Hanna questioned, turning away from Aria and focussing her attention on the woman sprawled along the love seat by the burning fireplace. Aria narrowed her eyes. "We were having a conversation Hanna, you can't just walk away from me!"

Her blatant frustration did nothing to phase the blonde however, as she moved to sit at the foot of Spencer's chair, taking her daughter into her lap.

"November fourth, the doctor said. Give or take."

"Wow." Hanna was surprised. Time seemed to fly by so fast, what with Tatum celebrating her sixth birthday in a few months time and Spencer having her first child in, apparently, only a week.

"Yeah. Toby and I are looking forward to her arrival."

"I bet," Hanna responded, as Tatum struggled against her light grip. "Mommy, Auntie Aria's calling me, can you please let me go?"

Hanna turned her head to find that, yes, Aria was calling to Tatum with a slew of hyperactive hand gestures. Rolling her eyes, she answered begrudgingly. "Alright go ahead." Hanna watched quizzically as Tatum bounded over to Aria with equal ecstasy.

"What's the secret?" Spencer wondered aloud, nudging Hanna with her swollen foot.

"Beats me," she shrugged, watching as Aria handed her daughter an iPad. Tatum nodded obediently, apparently seeing the coherence in her 'aunt's' words, something which Hanna struggled to attain.

"She's coming back over," Spencer hissed, hiding a smirk behind her hand.  
"What do you have there Tay?"

"Mommy, this is for you," Tatum stated, shoving the device into her open palm. Hanna took it graciously, turning it around to look at the page displayed on the screen.

"Aria!" Hanna groaned in annoyance. She was just going to give the iPad back, having none of it, when her resolve began to dissipate. She bit her lip, clicking on the subheading labeled 'matches.'

"You have one match." the screen pronounced, with the profile of her said 'match' directly below.

Samuel Bates.

* * *

_**Author's Note: There's chapter one! Please R and R! I feel there seriously isn't enough Haleb stories on here, so that's what prompted this. (Psst.. here's a secret: more reviews equals frequent updates :) ) **_


	2. Chapter 2

**_Author's Note: I know I said more reviews, frequent updates, and I did get 3 in the two hours since the story's publishing so here's chapter 2, hopefully giving a little more clarity as to where I am going with this :) _**

* * *

_**Caleb**_

The neon orange of the raven's beak lit up the darkened sky, feathers flitting with quickened convulsions as it flew in a graceful ark, letting out an elegiac squawk as it descended upon the textural sand.

Taking a swig of his beer, he sighed, wishing once again, for the thousandth time, that she was here with him to, if nothing else, experience the beautiful view.

"Hey man, you coming or what?"

Caleb turned his head, finding his roommate, Harrison Grant, staring him down with an inquisitive look from just inside the balcony door. It was then that he realized his mistake of not locking it behind him.

At this moment, Caleb just wanted to be alone, to wallow in her absence for another, consecutive, night. His answer though, after a pregnant pause, contradicted his desires as he nodded his head.

"Yeah. I'm coming." He took the final sip of his beer with deliberate slowness, upending the bottle and letting every last drop hit his tongue. "Bottoms up!" he offered weakly, shrugging with indifference as Harrison rolled his eyes. "Sure, whatever buddy. Let's get a move on. The guys are going to start without us."

Caleb chucked the beer bottle into the recycle upon entering their shared room, following Harrison out the door in which he came and downstairs to the student common room, where a tournament of pool awaits.

When the two entered the common room, Caleb reached out to slap hands with a passerby. "Hey man."

The other guy, Trent was his name, wore a grin the size of Texas, making his sharpened cheekbones protrude even more so. "Spring break you bunch of bitches! Stoked or nah?" he chortled, his tone inhabiting the territory of inebriated poseur.

"Totally man, I'm going to be seeing my girl... And her family." Harrison had, apparently, been listening to the conversation and now he watched as his ball slid gracefully into the pocket, taking two others with it. "Caleb, you're up," he mentioned offhandedly, passing off the pool stick.

Sidestepping Trent in an effort to accept the stick from Harrison's outstretched hand, he finally answered. "Nah. I mean, I have nobody to go home to."

He said this as he thought of Hanna; wondering what she was doing and how she was doing, for the thousandth and first time.

Trent hadn't appeared to have heard as he was stumbling drunkenly to a cluster of buxom women in short skirts and low-cut v-necks, subversively all brunettes. "Heeey laaadies!" he drawled, his multisyllabic slur emanating the pungent breath of a boozer.

Caleb sighed, crinkling his nose at the frowsy scent, the few vents overhead doing nothing to clear the air. "Damn Rivers, your playing is the shits. And I mean that in the most literal way possible."

Caleb tore his wondering gaze from Trent, now slinging his muscly arm over the shoulder of one of the girls, Jessica, if he remembered correctly, and turned to acknowledge the person that had spoken. "Yeah, well, I haven't played in a while," he shrugged noncommittally, "what do you expect?"

"Nothing less, that's for sure," the guy snorted, slapping him on the back in an amicable way. "Don't sweat it man. I'm just busting your balls."

Caleb's chuckle was detached, devoid of any real emotion, as his gaze found a blonde across the way.

She was sitting on a barstool, spinning it around as she listened attentively to the girl on her right. She seemed to be mildly interested as the other girl continued to chatter, running her hands through her hair absentmindedly.

Caleb inched closer to the pair, wanting to hear what it was they were saying. Whatever it was, the blonde found it funny, as she tipped her head back and let out dainty giggle; it's anonymity somehow synonymous to Hanna's unique nuance. These days, everything reminded him of her.

"I'm going to have an early night tonight." he announced, handing the pool stick to Harrison on his way by.

"Party pooper!" Trent hollered as he passed. "Yeah, party pooper!" Jessica echoed, laughing like a hyena as she lay her head back on his chest, eyes fluttering.

Caleb ignored them, deciding to take the two flights of stairs as opposed to the elevator. He could use the exercise after all the beer he's consumed in the last few years. At least, that's what Hanna would say. If she was here.

The image of her talking in his ear, a sibilant yet gentle whisper, came to mind. By the time he got to his floor, the descriptor in his mind's eye was so graphic, he could actually feel her warm breath in his ear, soft lips on his cheek.

He stumbled his way into bed, slightly delirious from his hallucinative trip, and, with a fuzzy throw, shielded his body form the chilly night air.

* * *

It hadn't been more than a few minutes before Harrison came traipsing in, shutting the door softly behind him. In the dark, Caleb could just make out his silhouette, firmly built and incredibly tall, sitting down on the bed opposite. "Don't mind Trevor. He was just being a dick."

Caleb snorted softly, "isn't he always?"

"True," Harrison conceded, reaching out to pat Caleb's shoulder. "It's Hanna isn't it?"

Caleb sighed emphatically, feeling the lump rise in his throat, preventing vocalization. "Yeah," he spoke after a minute, breathing slowly in fear that he may lose it.

"She'll come back man. I know she will."

Caleb allowed a smile at that. Harrison wasn't the 'get over it' type of guy. He listened to his sob story, admittedly with the attentiveness of a female, and gave advice, sometimes useful, sometimes not.

"I remember when Carol left for school a few years back. It was by far the hardest thing I've had to go through. We had lost contact halfway through her second semester, just not having the time for each other anymore. I remember thinking that I'd never find anybody as good as her, and then one day, she came back."

"She showed up at my door, screaming and crying, blaming me for not keeping up what we had. In truth, it was mostly me, I couldn't have a relationship based solely on weekly emails filled with such trivial things: 'how was your week? Mine was good. This is what I did.' No, I wanted more than that and she couldn't give it to me. Not in that time, anyway. So I broke it off, without actually breaking it off."

"What she craved, and myself alike, was closure. She said that's why she came back. For closure."

"But instead of a closed door, we found an open window. For you and Hanna, if anything that you've told me about her - you two - is the truth, it will be the same."

Caleb took a minute to digest everything, smiling a genuine smile for the first time in who knows how long. "Thanks H, that really helped."

"I knew it would. Hey, wanna check your matches?"

Caleb relented with the knowledge that Harrison only had his best interest at heart. "Why not?"

"Sweet." Harrison jumped up from the bed, switching on the light, blinding Caleb in the process, and found his laptop. "Let's do it."

Caleb moved to sit beside Harrison on his bed and typed in his password, the homepage already up.

In a few seconds max, his profile popped up, superseding the hourglass icon instructing he wait.

_Samuel_ _Bates_

You have one match.

* * *

_**Author's**_ **_Note_**: **_So_**, **_any_** **_idea_** **_where_** **_I'm_** **_taking_** **_this_** **_story_** **_people_**? **_It_** **_may_** **_or_** **_may_** **_not_** **_be_** **_painfully_** **_cliched_** ;) **_With_** **_that_** **_said_**, **_you_** **_won't_** **_disappointed_** **_in_** **_the_** **_least_** _**bit**_. **_Hopefully_**... :)


	3. Chapter 3

_**Author's Note: Here's another chapter of Northern Stars! R and R! (Refer to end A/N for our little deal)**  
_

* * *

_**Hanna**  
__  
The bears both voiced their absolute shock, little bodies gripped with such encompassing fear, as Lady proceeded to rip up another couch cushion with raucous fervor; cottony remnants falling to the floor, symphonic with a sudden hush as the barking stopped. "Oh no!" Sister Bear gasped, "what are we going to do?"_ _  
_

Tatum felt similarly to the Berenstain siblings, as she gaped at the television screen. "Mommy, the puppy ruined the house!"

"You alright Tay?" Hanna questioned, hearing her daughter's exclamation from the other room.

"Me fine, mommy," she answered, eyes still on the screen as Mama and Papa bear entered. "Uh oh, Brother and Sister are in trouble!"

Hanna smiled, turning to go back into the room she had just come out of.

"Han, you HAVE to see this!" Aria's squeal welcomed her at the foot of the door, and she sighed. "What is it?"

The girls, aside from Hanna, were huddled around a single Mac computer, much like a sub-formed football team.

"This guy is such a cheese ball," Emily mused, laughing to herself.

"I like to bang chicks at midnight, you know, if you're into that kind of thing." Spencer's voice dipped a few octaves, making Hanna erupt into a gasping laughter.

"What does it say!?" She leaned over, attempting to see past Emily's head, as she read silently from his profile.

* * *

_**Samuel Bates:**_

_**Likes: piña coladas and champagne. (Making love at midnight is quite scandalous and therefore preferred... Take that as you wish..) **_

_**Dislikes: getting caught in the rain and yoga. **_

_**P.S. I have a full-functioning brain. **_

* * *

"Ohmigod" Those couple words expelled from her lips in an incoherent snicker. "Who does he think he is?"

"Hot shit, apparently," Spencer murmured, earning a shove from Emily.

"I think she should give this guy a chance and not be so quick to judge."

"Oh Emily - forever bright-eyed optimist Emily - don't you see, this guy's a total sham," Spencer rebuked, rolling her eyes.

"Sham or not, I think he's pretty cute, and Hanna needs to get out there, experience what it is she's missing."

"Aria, Tatum does not need a one night stand," she quickly turned her head to find her daughter curled up on the sofa, watching Saturday morning cartoons - just like she has been for the past hour - and sighed. "She needs a stable father figure."

"Well, Han, maybe Tatum doesn't need one but you do. Seriously. You've been grumpy as shit lately."

Hanna slapped Aria's shoulder with indirected anger. "And you think that's because of sex."

"Lack thereof, actually,"Aria corrected with a smirk.

"Thanks Aria. Is that how you survived senior year? All those 'slips' with Fitz-y boy?"

"Shove it Han." Aria scowled, the tips of her ears turning pink.

"Anyway..." Emily drawled, her elongation of the word serving as a smooth transition. "I think you should do it."

* * *

Hanna tugged incessantly at the short dress, willing the hemline to become longer with another forceful pull.

"Damn it Ari, it's freezing out here," she complained, cursing her friend and the fashion choice: something Aria called 'the gucci black dress.'

She'd sworn it wasn't 'hoochie' but as Hanna adjusted the plunging neckline once again, she was convinced the label had been misread.

As her golden curls, curtesy of Emily, swirled around her reddened cheeks like one's own personal twister, she once again blamed Aria.

_"Fashionably late is the new fad," _she'd insisted, pushing Hanna from her car at seven forty five sharp, exactly twenty minutes later than previously arranged. Apparently, this guy had the same idea as he still hadn't shown up. Hanna checked her watch - he was now half an hour late - ten minutes later than she.

Hanna sighed for the hundredth time that night, and furiously punched a number into her phone. As it began to ring, she raised it to her ear.

"Aria, what the hell?" she seethed, dismissing her friend's chipper greeting altogether. "You told me he'd be here."

"And he will be. Relax, Han. He just wants to make a good impression."

Aria's jubilant tone was oxymoronic to Hanna's anger, and that in itself made her mood worsen. Aria was treating this like a simple tactic designed to win her over, not like the prolonged calamity it was.

"Yeah well, the first impression rose has already been given. To me. I actually made an effort. As far as I'm concerned, this asshole can suck it."

"This is all your fault. It all started with the stupid dress."

Aria sighed, clearly annoyed at this point.

"Give him a chance Han!" Emily called, her voice sounding distant and crackly through the phone.

"I'm only doing this for Em," Hanna clarified before hanging up the phone in a huff.

When Tatum was born, right before Hanna's second semester of design school at the Art Institute, Emily had graciously offered to take a year off at Danby to help out. Hanna graciously declined though, she had her mother staying home full time with the baby. Even so, Emily had insisted on helping in some way, and bought bunches of baby clothes and took a few months leave claiming a "family emergency."

Hanna has been forever indebted to her, despite what she says. So now, when Emily wants something from her, she gets it: no follow up questions or complaints.

Suddenly, scaring Hanna half to death, there was a tap on her shoulder; something which caused her to whip around, nearly smacking whoever it was in the face.

"You better have a good reason why you're late, Mr. Bates, and don't tell me it's because you've been at your motel, grieving your mother who is really your split personality. I'm onto you."

Hanna crossed her arms over her chest and awaited a response, never letting her stare waver.

Surprising her, the guy smiled, his green eyes sparkling with amusement. "I'm afraid you may have read my profile wrong Ms. Marin. My name is Samuel, not Norman and, despite what you may think at this very moment, I am not psycho."

Hanna ran her tongue over her professionally-whitened-for-this teeth and smiled too, playing off of his remark.

"Well, I can't be too sure about that, can I? And it's Hanna. Ms. Marin is my mom's name."

"Hanna. It's nice to meet you."

"You too Samuel."

When he grabbed her hand to pull her under his umbrella- it had started to rain shortly after his arrival, she completely forgot to yell at him for his dating faux pas of being late; the sparks that shot through her hand detonated the bomb that had been set to explode. "Let's go inside."

Hanna smiled, her opinion having changed about the approaching dinner. "I like that idea."

* * *

**Author's Note: How many references were in this chapter? What were they from? If someone can name them all, and correctly, another chapter just might go up tomorrow! And if I get 5-10 (nothing less, though more is welcome!) reviews that chapter will be uploaded today!**


	4. Chapter 4

**_Author's Note: Sorry for the wait... I don't even know if I should continue this _****_story... if you want me to you have to convince me in the reviews! :)_**

* * *

**_Caleb_**

The burning sensation wouldn't let up, regardless of his slowed steps. _"I'm sorry but..."_ The rest of that sentence, in and of itself, was like knife; twisting his entrails and perpetuating the ruination of his heart as its life secreted from the sharpened cracks, doing nothing to rectify the death of his soul._ "This can't continue."_

When Caleb had gotten up the final set of stairs and to his shared room, he found Harrison lying on his bed, his interest captivated not by how Caleb's date had went, but with the book he had perched on his pillow. "Hey man did you know -" he began, having heard the door open, but stopped immediately upon seeing his roommate's face. "That bad huh?"

Caleb plopped down onto the bed, having no energy to take off his shoes beforehand. "Yeah. She even rejected me nicely, as in it sounded pretty. I mean, what girl has the ability to do that, but still make a guy feel like shit?" Hudson just nodded. "That's rough."

"You're telling me."

Hudson rolled to his side, turning to face Caleb head on. "I know this is not the best time... but are you ready for round two?"

Caleb sighed, his distress largely perceptible from the way his shoulders slumped, a reaction to the callousness of that suggestion. "I haven't even stripped myself completely from the first one."

With that, Caleb stood from his previous position and walked over to the desk, where a conglomeration of stereotypical college accoutrements -pens, notebooks, textbooks as well as a couple beer bottles, one half full, the other empty - currently reside.

He proceeded to open the drawer to the left, second one down, and took out a contact case along with a small bottle of solution. The light shining through the casement above the desk seemed to be enough as Caleb deftly took the colored contacts from his eyes, sans mirror, and all that remained was the chocolate of his irises. "Dude, you think you would have started with the wig. That thing looks like it itches."

"It is a pain in the ass," he confessed, "all of it is...but if I can get Hanna back... It'll be all worth it in the end." Having removed the blonde wig, he felt lighter, more like himself, instead of Samuel Bates: the dick that had just gotten shot down, having went to far with her.

_He held the door open as she entered the restaurant, like a gentleman, and pulled her chair out too. Throughout a dinner of salmon and roasted vegetables for her, and a steak with garlic mash for himself, the pair conversed back and forth, the topics discussed not much deeper than the glasses of Merlot in front of them._

_Then, after splitting a dessert - this one took a little convincing on his part - "you need to treat yourself once and awhile, a gorgeous model such as yourself can afford a few extra calories"- of blueberry pie with a dollop of vanilla ice cream, they left the restaurant hand in hand._

_When she was waiting for her taxi, neither of them in a good position to be the designated driver, he brought it up, feeling the moment was opportune._

_"So," he swiftly checked his watch, "it's midnight... how do you feel about a little -"_

_"What!?" Her shock and repulsiveness could be sensed a mile away as she turned to him. "Are you serious!?"_

This next second he would remember now, for a lifetime. He was hurt once, although he threw the first punch, and here he was again, doing the same thing, all be it with different circumstance.

_She took a deep breath, closing her eyes and opening them again. "Look Samuel, I'm sorry but..."_

"She'd said to me that 'this couldn't continue.'

"I couldn't believe it. Part of me thought she'd be all over it. I mean, she was before when we were dating, very into role playing. Isn't that what this is?"

Hudson, in response, shook his head. "First of all, I think you should keep your kinky secrets between the two of you. Okay?"

"And second, that's not at all what this is to Hanna. To her, it's a first date, with somebody she met literally a few hours ago. Buddy, you have to understand. When she meets you under these disguises, she sees the alias, not Caleb Rivers: her high school sweetie. Tonight, she saw blonde, green eyed, witty, and apparently dick-y, Samuel Bates."

Harrison earned a slap for that last comment, as Caleb leaned over and shoved him. "Shut up asshole."

Harrison chuckled as he righted himself from his fallen stance. "It's true though man, that was a dick move."

Caleb sighed in defeat. "I know."  
"So, what do you propose we do?"

Harrison smirked, holding up a black wig, complete with authentic looking attachable sideburns, and a box of disposable blue contacts. "Chase Renning?"

Caleb said nothing at first, just opened the laptop that had been sitting on the desk, and brought up the Match homepage.

"Round two commencing," he muttered, clicking the 'sign up' button.

* * *

**_Hanna_**

The feeling was still there; a slight tingle that began at her hand and strayed from there soon after, moving throughout her entire body and lighting it on fire.

Hanna sighed, the touch of his fingers still present on her own like a distending purple bruise.

His hand grazed her own with such causality yet she could sense the urgency and his reluctance to let go. It was the same as Caleb's caress all those years ago, like that was the last time he'd ever see her.

"How'd it go Han?" Emily asked, dog-earring the page of her book and directing her attention on her friend.

"Fine," she responded, "I told him it wasn't going to go anywhere."

Emily seemed perplexed, her eyebrows raised and head cocked to the side. "Huh. I see I was right. Seriously though, why?"

Hanna shrugged. "Something was just off."

Emily sighed. "Han..."

"Emily, I'm fine! It just wasn't working okay!?"

Emily was always on her case about not being over Caleb as were Aria and Spencer. They were the one's who practically forced her to sign up for , something she would not have done on her own.

_"Honey, you're going to end up watching the sappiest rom-coms on loop, eating cheep dollar store chocolate, endlessly quoting The Notebook in hopes that it will become your life, while your daughter is forced to live with one of us out of sheer desperation and terror - having developed a fear of her own mother. It's this, or the Bachelorette: which would you prefer?"_

_Hanna shook her head. "Thanks for believing in me guys, I love you all too. And, as for the reality show, 'eez okay' I'll pass."_

_"Juan Pablo? Really Han?"_

_Hanna chuckled in response, "what? He's hot."_

_"So match it is," Aria decided, ignoring Hanna's last comment and clicking the sign up button._

"Anyway," Hanna yawned after a moments silence, "thanks for watching her. I'm going to bed. You can crash here if you want."

Emily politely declined, her reasoning of having to wake up early and go running barely phasing Hanna in her exhausted state. "Alright. See you tomorrow. Bye Em."

"Bye Han. And tomorrow is round two, so be ready."

"Ugh," she groaned in displeasure, removing her heels. "I'll try."

Emily nodded in contentment. "That's what I want to hear. Chin up sweetheart. It'll get better, I promise you. This next guy, he'll be it."

"How do you know?"

Emily winked, "I just do."

* * *

_**A/N: I'll admit this wasn't a long chapter but even so I hope it clears up some things. 1) Caleb IS Samuel Bates. It's apart of his "get Hanna back" plan. 2)Hanna doesn't know, but is suspicious because of the sparks she felt, so because she was suddenly afraid, told Samuel (Caleb) that it wasn't working out to avoid potentially getting hurt. **_


End file.
